5. Those who created the Version and Text as well as those who boast about them know little or nothing about Hebrew or Greek.

6. They have approved leaders.

7. They are warned about reading others.

8. Their meetings are a rehash of their approved Bible Study magazine.

9. They have approved guardians who do their best to censor outside materials.

10. They rarely read Scripture, but they feast on the approved materials.

11. Questioning an approved doctrine from Scripture is not welcome - if you do - YOU'RE OUT! You're labeled "Unstable." Etc...

12. They think that they are the only group that's in the right.

13. They are isolated from the world.

Do you know any groups like that? Have you been part of a group that only "sticks with" approved teachers? Are there "guardians" in that group who are always warning you about this guy and that guy? Are you part of a group that believes its members are one of the "few"? Are they isolated? Are the leaders of that group isolated? Do they avoid human contact? Do they despise this life? Do they minimize work, family, and ethics? Do they revel in the writings of the movement and give very little time to the actual Scriptures? Are the Scriptures merely used as a supplement to the writings of men? Do you feel uncomfortable when "new" ideas are presented that contradict your approved teachers?

Truth has nothing to fear from examination. If THINKING and RE-THINKING scares you, then you haven't found truth. You might be a person who simply wants to settle on something that makes you FEEL good; hardly a self-less expression of love for God. Many times a professed love for God is actually a love for a God created in one's own image. In other words - a person invents a God in his own mind that makes him feel good; then anything that violates this invented god is Heresy.

Thomas Jefferson wrote:

“Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens...tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either…that the impious presumption of ...rulers...who being themselves fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others...”

Jefferson went on to say that truth doesn’t need human authority behind it. He said that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, and truth has nothing to fear from conflict. Using verbal coercion or attacks against those who disagree with you will only hinder free debate and actually perpetuate the very errors the pretended cult-hunters pretend to hate.

The Scriptures say: "How can two walk together unless they agree" (Amos 3:3). Many take this to mean that you can't have fellowship unless we read the same version and read the same material. That's the cult mentality.

The Emphasized Bible translates that passage this way: "Can two walk together, except they meet by appointment?" That's better. You and I can't walk together unless we first meet to begin our journey. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the World - we have already met! We can now begin walking together. As we walk, we can discuss and learn as we go. But we don't need to see eye to eye on everything to stay on the same road.

Only a tyrant would push someone off the road after they had already met! To push people off the road is to deny the finished work of Jesus Christ!

We aren't in the Kingdom yet. Kingdom powers don't exist today. To think you have approved teachers is to pretend you are living in a different dispensation! There are no God-approved apostles today. God will one day set all of us straight - but that day ain't today. We have the Scriptures and brains - use them. That's how truth is arrived at.

Hi, I'm Dan. We've already met. I'm happy to walk with you on the road. I'll never push you off. But that doesn't mean I'll always agree with you. You in?